Substantial effort has been directed to the removal of contaminants from an aqueous media, such as ground water. Numerous “Superfund” sites have been established because of contamination of ground water by various materials. The main contaminants are metals, particularly uranium and hexavalent chromium, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), high explosive compounds, nitrates, perchlorates, arsenic, and tritium, as well as various commercial and manufacturing waste contaminants. Additionally, naturally occurring arsenic and arsenic from industrial operations has contaminated drinking water sources.
Presently, granular activated carbon (GAC), ion-exchanged resins, air-strippers, and bioremediation are used for contaminate removal. These work on many contaminants. However, there is not a readily available cost-effective remedy for arsenic removal from ground water and surface waters to meet the newly promulgated regulatory requirement for arsenic in drinking water that states a maximum contaminant level of 10 ppb for arsenic. GAC has been commercially used as an adsorbent for contaminants in water. It is cheap and treatment technology hardware is readily available commercially for its use. Even though GAC is a good adsorbent medium for many contaminants, such as VOCs, it is not efficient for certain metals, particularly uranium, hexavalent chromium, and arsenic. Thus, there has been a need for a material by which contaminating metals and certain organic compounds may be removed from aqueous and vapor medias.